Examination regulations, assessment and grading

1.The Faculty Council, following the proposal of the competent Course Council, establishes the examination regulations in order to achieve an objective and fair assessment of the appropriate knowledge and skills of the students permitting the prosecution of their academic career.
2. Only enrolled students may be admitted to examinations.
3. Within each exam session, regularly enrolled students can sit as many examinations as they are entitled to through course attendance, in line with degree course programme regulation.
4. By passing examinations or other testing, students acquire the established educational credits.
5. Committee for credit-awarding examinations is appointed by the Faculty Dean and chaired by the official professor in charge of the course or, if established, by the course co-ordinator. Members of academic staff belonging to a similar or the scientific field, or, when necessary, post-graduate students so appointed by the Faculty Board, following fixed criteria may qualify for membership of a Committee. Committee operates with a minimum of at least two members, one of them being the official professor of the course the Committee refers to. If necessary, more than one Committee can simultaneously be working on the same credit-awarding examination, each being chaired by a professor belonging to the same or similar discipline. The President of the Committee records examinations and their results.
6. Results of one examination are expressed as a fraction of 30. In order to pass an examination, a minimum of 18/30 is required. The Committee may unanimously decide for a mention of distinction (lode).
7. The Dean prepares a timetable for credit-awarding examination, in accordance with provisions of the Organizing Regulation of the Faculty.
8. Each course provides students with at least six dates, distributed during the academic year, in which they can take examinations.
9. Examinations performed in oral form are open to the public.

Profile of the programme

The one cycle degree course in Law is primarily aimed at preparation for the so-called traditional legal professions, namely lawyer, magistrate, notary. Its programme, however, also fits perfectly the needs of those students aspiring to pursue an advanced legal education, as prerequisite to gain access to senior government administration roles, the diplomatic service, and the legal departments of private companies and organizations as well as, more generally, to hold positions of high responsibility requiring advanced qualifications in the world of public administrations, international organizations, credit, unions, real estate brokerage, specialized journalism and so on.
In this sense the course pursues the aim of ensuring a high-level legal education and mastery of the cultural instruments and, particularly, methodological instruments necessary for adequately approaching and resolving general and specific, abstract and concrete legal questions. The latter point must be particularly stressed. As well as teaching traditional legal areas, the course aims to enable students to acquire mastery of the structures and techniques specific to legal-forensic logic and argumentation.
The programme has been designed keeping well in mind the expectations and requirements of a lawyer destined to find employment in an ever-more international environment, which compels him to deal constantly, if not daily, with non-national laws and regulations. It is within this perspective that ample space has been given to teaching international and European law; and it also explains why the course has the objective of making the student familiar with English legal language, promoting this aspect by having courses taught exclusively in this language.
The course has a single five-year cycle. The first year programme includes different subjects with a historical-philosophical focus, intended to provide or consolidate that cultural foundation that is essential before moving on to the more strictly positive law subjects covered in the programme in the following years. The last two years, it should be pointed out, include several elective and specialized subjects, in order to allow students to study in greater depth specific sectors chosen by them because they match their inclinations and interests.

Key learning outcomes

Graduates from degree courses in this class: - will acquire detailed knowledge of Italian and European legal culture, by methods that include case study techniques, in relation to issues that facilitate the understanding and evaluation of positive law principles and institutions; - will acquire detailed historical knowledge that makes it possible to assess institutes of positive law from points of view that include their historical development; - will be able to write clear, pertinent, well-argued and effective legal texts (regulatory and/or contractual and/or procedural) according to their contexts of use, utilizing computer tools when necessary; - will have comprehensive skills in interpretation, case analysis, juridical qualification (considering concrete situations in the light of abstract rules), comprehension, representation, evaluation and awareness in order to deal with problems of legal interpretation and application; - will have in-depth knowledge of basic tools for keeping their own skills up to date. Graduates from courses in this class, in addition to taking up positions in the legal professions and magistracy, may be employed in functions hallmarked by a high degree of responsibility in various fields in social, social-economic and political areas, namely in institutions, public administration, private companies, trade unions, the informaties law sector, sectors of comparative, international and European community law (European jurist), and in international organisations in which the jurist’s skills of analysis, evaluation and decision-making are valuable even outside specific areas of specialist knowledge. In accordance with the “subject-specific learning objectives” described in Ministerial Decree 25.11.2005 and published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale n° 293 of 17.12.2005 (defining the class of the Master degree law course in accordance with Ministerial Decree 270/2004), the objective of the course is to give students advanced knowledge at the, methodological and substantial level, with a specific focus on real dynamics, contemporary political and social-economic processes, and on historical, economic and philosophical premises. More specifically, the subdivision of the compulsory subjects in the course programme covers all the main scientific-disciplinary areas typical of law studies, with a detailed study of all major branches of positive law. The course programme has been extended by the addition of 18 credits chosen by students. This gives students the possibility of converting examinations taken abroad or in other Faculties, and to study in depth various subjects consistent with the class system or to consolidate language knowledge or computer skills. In order to maintain a logical sequence in the course structure, there are limitations with regard to optional and compulsory subjects. Appropriate importance is given to language and computer skills within the overall range of the academic activities. The course provides juridical preparation for work in the legal professions and legal-administrative or legal-economic functions hallmarked by a high level of responsibility and complexity. It also includes subjects which provide a specific preparation for legal professional practice (solicitors, magistrates, notaries).

Final examination, if any

Upon completion of the course the final exam must testify to the cultural growth of the student in their field of study. To this end, the final exam consists of a progress report on an advanced and/or innovative subject in a discipline from the course, chosen under the supervision of a professor on the course. The report is discussed in front of a Commission, usually composed of professors from different disciplines. The discussion must make clear in particular the capacity gained by the student to select and use independently and critically the methodologies of analysis acquired during the training on the one hand, and the flexibility to use other interdisciplinary frames of reference on the other.